SAWS told to better manage its water

SAWS President and CEO Robert Puente right along with Suzanne Scott, Reed Williams and Calvin Finch discuss San Antonio's future water supply at the third Water Forum at the Pearl Stables on Wednesday Oct. 10, 2012.

Photo By Helen L. Montoya/San Antonio Express-News

Andrew Samson, executive director of The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment at Texas State University discusses San Antonio's future water supply at the third Water Forum at the Pearl Stables on Wednesday Oct. 10, 2012.

Of the dozens of facts and figures presented at Water Forum III — Our Water: Our Future at the Pearl on Wednesday, that bit of information, given by Calvin Finch, a former SAWS conservation director, got one of the strongest responses, especially from his former boss.

“I used to have a lot more control over Calvin,” said SAWS CEO Robert Puente, who served as a panelist with Finch.

Finch, now director of the Texas A&M Water Conservation and Technology Center, used his lost-water fact to support his position that if SAWS wants to convince San Antonio ratepayers they should pay more for new water projects, it's first going to have to do a better job of managing the water it already has.

“We have to convince the rate payers this is not just so 30 percent of us can water our lawns more,” he said about going for more water, which he supports.

“I don't like being dependent on foreign oil and I don't want to be dependent on foreign food,” he said, pointing out that some of the greatest advances in water conservation have been in agriculture.

His statements were supported by Rep. Lyle Larson, who proposed taking $1 billion out of the state's rainy day fund to leverage $10 billion in water projects, focusing on brackish ground water and storing surface water in underground reservoirs.

“We need to be very careful in not misleading the people that we can build our way out of this problem,” he said, noting the loss of agriculture and undeveloped land is a direct threat to water quality and that no amount of reservoirs or pipelines could replace the water needed if Texas loses the natural systems it is dependent on.

Suzanne Scott, general manager of the San Antonio River Authority, pointed out that the debate about water conservation is about land use, and that the use of native plants and low-impact development could take San Antonio a long way toward assuring better management of the water it gets for free from the sky.

City Councilman Reed Williams supported SAWS' pursuit of a new water project and conservation.

He saw a solution in increasing rates for the large water users, who are driving demand, and creating a surcharge every time San Antonio steps up its drought restrictions.